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Artifact Details

Title

IBM photostore cell

Catalog Number

102730212

Type

Physical object

Date

1967

Manufacturer

IBM

Dimensions

overall: 1 in x 1 1/2 in x 3 in

Description

This object is a cell for the IBM Photostore system used for large-scale archival storage of physics data at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the 1970s. Each cell is a small plastic box containing 32 film chips onto which data would be recorded. Each film chip held 32 data fields in a 4 x 8 array. One cell was roughly equivalent to one 2400 foot, 8 channel, magnetic tape recorded at 800 bits per inch.